Republicans Are Ridiculous on FISA Spying-on-Trump Posturing

Amid concerns about President* Trump's ongoing threat to fundamental rights, as noted by Emma Kohse at Lawfare, the U.S. Senate "voted 65 to 34 to extend FISA Section 702, [communications surveillance], authorities for six years on Thursday, one day before the temporary authorization was set to expire. The House passed the reauthorization measure on Jan. 11," signed by Trump this afternoon.

The bill is S.139, FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017 — 115th Congress (2017-2018).

What's seems improbable is how quickly congressional members voice grave concern about rights and then vote for FISA, (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), anyway.

Notes Glenn Greenwald:

Amazing this bill to increase spying powers and block safeguards was passed by 1) Republicans who have spent a year warning of the corruption of the Deep State and 2) Dems who spent the year saying that officials who get this power - Trump and Sessions - are racist tyrants and traitors https://t.co/0dAXgtrvgg

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018

Whatever the merits of the FISA, Trump, Republicans, and most Democrats in Congress do offer credible concerns.

Linked are Senate Roll Call Vote on FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017.

Meanwhile, Republicans continued ridiculous posturing today that Trump is a victim of surveillance by the Deep State and the Republican-led House has the intelligence memo to prove this, though Republicans refuse to make public their secret memo.

Such posturing earlier prompted Greenwald to ridicule:

This makes no sense for multiple reasons: 1) your dod could declassify the docs, which he should do if they really show pervasive criminality & spying abuses; 2) it's not "stooping" to reveal high-level crimes; it's a duty; 3) refusal to release this suggests it's all bullshit. https://t.co/c1mhXVHPwu

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 19, 2018

I Stand with So-called Traitor—Edward Snowden

No thinking, stay away and trust us.
We know better than you.

Edward Snowden stands tall against the miserable national security state clones and clowns

In the United States of America, what if major figures of the national security/surveillance state began to turn on an American and brand him or her, "traitor," and then try to imprison him for the rest of his life?

That's exactly what's happening as Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, is now targeted for arrest as he hides out in Hong Kong, some speculate.

In any event, Snowden is a hero and clueless miscreants in this democracy—such as congressional intelligence chairs Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein—have met expectations as having little to no conception of what the role of liberty is and what the status of citizens means in this democratic republic.

"If you realize that that’s the world you helped create and it is going to get worse with the next generation and the next generation and extend the capabilities of this architecture of oppression, you realize that you might be willing to accept any risks and it doesn’t matter what the outcome is," Snowden said.

Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras report:

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.

On May 20, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong, where he has remained ever since. He chose the city because 'they have a spirited commitment to free speech and the right of political dissent,' and because he believed that it was one of the few places in the world that both could and would resist the dictates of the US government.

Few expect Snowden's revelations to spark a debate on secrecy and secret surveillance of Americans in a democracy to occur in Congress, widely reviled by the U.S. population as a near-worthless institution.

But the spectacle of a scandal is forcing many in the US media to address matters that Snowden brings to the attention of our society, as Congress, Rogers and Feinstein demonstrate their lack of any substantial value.

Here is a link to the words of Snowden.

I'm rooting for Snowden.

And from RT (formerly Russia Today):